January 17, 2024 • 14 mins
006: Make sure you create a product or service your consumer needs, and you are on the path to success in small business. Join me, Lily Richmond, in this series opener, where we lay the groundwork for you to start your marketing on the right track when you're just starting out in business. I’m going to share a powerful brainstorming exercise to help you stand out in a crowded marketplace and build a product that consumers actually want. I've even developed an easy-to-follow worksheet to help you nail down your unique product or service offering. Grab it here: https://marketingondemand.co/startup1
Whether you're a startup or an existing business re-evaluating your approach, this seven part series will help you get your marketing approach right first time.
View the episode show notes and transcript here: https://marketingondemand.co/podcast
Got a topic you want me to cover? Share your ideas here: https://marketingondemand.co/contact
Got a topic you want me to cover? Share your ideas here: https://marketingondemand.co/contact
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Introduction (00:05):
Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Huddle.
Our show is all about takingaction.
We equip you with the marketingknowledge and confidence you
need to make real progress.
So let's huddle up and listenin to the latest episode with
your host, Lily Richmond.
Lily Richmond (00:31):
Hey, this is Lily .
Thank you so much for joiningme in this episode today.
Now, if you're alreadysubscribed to the show, thank
you so much.
You definitely make this huddlean awesome place to learn about
all things marketing.
And if this is your first timehere, don't forget to hit the
follow or subscribe button inyour favourite podcast player,
(00:52):
because today, like in everyepisode, I'm going to cover a
marketing topic you've reallygot to learn if you want to
master your marketing.
And, as always, make sure youlisten until the very end,
because I'm going to give youthe inside track and an easy to
follow worksheet on how tocreate a compelling product or
service that people actuallywant to buy.
So let's get started Now.
(01:14):
Today's episode is a little bitdifferent because it's going to
kick off a series on where tostart when you're just starting
out, and this idea actually camefrom a listener who asked me
will you be doing an episodetargeted to those who are just
starting their marketing journey, when it's a brand new business
and they literally don't knowwhere to start?
(01:35):
And I thought, hey, that is anawesome series of episodes that
I could do, and particularly atthe start of the year, when
there might be a few of you outthere who are brimming with a
new business idea and you don'tknow where to start.
So you asked and I'm going todeliver.
And on that note, actually, ifyou do have a marketing topic
that you would find helpful forme to cover, definitely get in
(01:57):
touch.
You can find out how to do thatin the episode show notes, so
definitely check that out onceyou've finished listening.
Now I put a lot of thought intowhat marketing tasks are
absolutely critical when youwant to start strong with a new
business, and I wanted todistill this down so you can
(02:19):
focus your energy on the mostimportant things.
And I know from my ownexperience that starting a
business is really exciting, butit's pretty scary too and at
times it is really overwhelming.
You know you go from having thenugget of an idea to having to
work out your I don't know yourlegal structure, how you're
(02:41):
going to develop a product, whatroles you need to hire, opening
bank accounts the list justgoes on and on and on.
And I totally appreciate thatyou might be in a space where
you're doing this for the veryfirst time.
You've never had a businessbefore.
Going into business for thefirst time is, it is a full on
(03:02):
thing, and feeling a bit allover the place is totally,
totally natural, but togetherwe're going to make sure that,
when it comes to the marketingaspects of your new small
business, you know exactly whatyou need to do, and we're going
to filter out all of that stuffthat just doesn't matter at this
point so you can focus.
(03:23):
So there are going to be sevendifferent topics that I'm going
to cover over the next sevenepisodes, and today we're
kicking off with how to create acompelling offer that people
just cannot resist.
And why are we choosing thatfirst as a topic?
Well, I really think that youneed to be able to spell out
what it is your business bringsto the world.
(03:44):
And, second, you need to makesure that the world actually
needs and wants what it is thatyou're going to offer.
Otherwise, being brutal, you'reactually wasting your time and
money if you develop a businessaround a product or service
offering that people just aren'tinterested in buying.
So we need to make sure thatyou get that right and, to be
(04:05):
fair, this is one of thefoundation or bedrock pieces of
your marketing, whether you'vestarted a new business or
whether you've been in businessfor a while.
So, without further ado, let'sget into it.
So what does it mean to create acompelling offer, and why is
this an important first step foryou?
(04:26):
Well, I like to think about itthis way A compelling product or
service makes your idealcustomer go oh, I've got to have
that.
This is just what I've beenlooking for, right?
It solves a problem.
It meets your customer wherethey are and it says this is how
I'm going to make your lifebetter.
(04:46):
That's a compelling product orservice offering.
Now you might fire back at meand say that's all well and good
, but there is huge competitionout there in the space that I
want to operate, and there areplenty of people doing what I'm
about to start doing.
How on earth am I going tobreak through?
And this is the way you do it.
(05:07):
You be compelling in what youroffer is.
You've got to create that offerthat gives your ideal customer
a reason, a really good reason,to choose you over your
competitors.
And this is a key thing.
It's a key question that I askconsulting clients.
So what?
Why is your ideal customergoing to choose your business
(05:32):
over your competitors?
And you can probably detect Iget pretty passionate about this
particular topic because it'sreally simple but so often
overlooked.
So we are going to sort thatout today.
Now you don't have to beinventing something new with
your business right.
You don't have to be zany andout there.
You don't have to be inventingsomething.
You've just got to create aproduct or service with solid
(05:56):
reasons, you know and I meansolid, right Things that you can
prove and you can hang your haton on why someone would choose
you to help them solve theirproblem.
And this is why I'm startingwith your product or service
offering.
First, you've got to understandwhat you bring to the
marketplace.
Now I've got to caveat all ofthis that your first entry point
(06:17):
into your marketing might notstart here, with your product or
service offering.
You might not have come up withyour product or service idea
first.
You might have actuallyidentified a target market that
you want to go after and you'vereally got to come up with a
product or service that meetssomething that that market needs
.
It's totally cool to start withthe customer first, before the
(06:41):
product, but what I've tended tofind in my experience is that
most business owners have anidea of what it is they want to
offer first, and then the marketgets defined and refined after
that, but that might not be thecase for you.
So if you want to start withthe customer first, then you'll
want to listen to the nextepisode that comes out and that
(07:04):
might make that first step moreclear and easy for you, and then
you come on to product.
There's no single way to dothis.
You can listen to the episodesin whichever way you want to.
They all work perfectly finetogether and you'll probably
need to come back to them.
There's no one single way to doany of this marketing like, but
I'm just going to give youthose key tools so you can
(07:25):
actually work it out foryourself.
Now, getting a really clearpicture of your target market
and your ideal customer arereally important and they are
very much linked to creatingthat compelling product or
service offering.
So once you've defined yourtarget market and your ideal
customer, in the next episodeyou might need to come back to
this episode or the tasks fromthis episode to refine your
(07:49):
compelling offer, because onceyou really get into the nitty
gritty of who your audience is,you might need to refine your
product further.
But let's not focus on thattoday.
That's what we're going tocover in the next episode and
really what you offer and to whothey are intimately linked.
But I really need to break thisdown and make it simple and
digestible for you.
And another aspect ofdeveloping your product or
(08:11):
service for market is yourpricing, and pricing is a big
old, meaty topic that we're notgoing to cover today here either
.
That's going to be in a laterepisode in the series too.
So park pricing for now.
I always think you need to havea market with something
compelling to sell and then youcan work out how you need to
(08:32):
price it.
Now, what are some of thebenefits that you would get by
focusing some of your time andenergy now on developing a
compelling product or serviceoffering?
I think there's three keythings.
Firstly, your ideal customer isgoing to connect with it.
The second is, you are muchmore likely to win customers,
(08:54):
sell more products and getrepeat business.
And the third thing is it helpsyou be super clear and really
intentional about what it isthat you are really offering.
Yep, it helps you just focus onthose basics of what your
business is here to do.
Now, okay, you understand whyit's important to have a
compelling product or serviceoffering.
(09:15):
How on earth are you going tocome up with it?
If you listen in, after thebreak, I'm going to give you
five actionable steps that youcan take to make sure that
you're creating a product orservice or business idea that
people actually want to buy.
Okay, it is time to grab somespace your favorite refreshment
(09:41):
and take some action Now.
I've created a worksheet forthis exercise because, yet again
, like some of the others, youdon't want to have to write all
these tasks down while I'mtalking, and it can be a little
bit overwhelming and you needtime to think.
So pop into the episode shownotes, where I've dropped a link
to grab it.
Okay, first up, number one youneed to take the nugget of your
(10:04):
product or service idea and getyour head around what it does,
who would use it and why andjust freeform brainstorm this
right out as many points thatare coming to you as possible
what it does, who would use itand why.
Second, you need to look atwhat else is out there in your
(10:25):
marketplace where you want toserve.
Who else is doing this?
How are they doing it?
What do they do well?
What do they not do quite sowell?
Where are the gaps?
What are some opportunitiesthat are maybe being missed in
your marketplace?
This is your market research,and a really good way to do it,
I find, is put yourself in yourcustomers shoes.
(10:46):
Pretend that you are themshopping for what it is that you
are going to offer.
Okay, task number three I wantyou to have a good think about
the things that are important toyour consumer, the things that
they consider when they'rebuying your product or service.
What's on their list ofpriority features and benefits?
(11:07):
Now, don't worry that you don'tknow exactly, maybe, who that
ideal customer is.
Yet we're going to get to that.
Keep it broad for now.
Anyone who's in the market tobuy your product, what's
important to them?
Put yourself in their shoes,like you did in the market
research section and list outthe things what's important to
them when buying this product orservice.
The fourth task I want you todo is to have a think about how
(11:30):
you're going to stand outagainst that competition that
you have assessed in action.
Number two what is it that youcould do differently?
And it doesn't necessarily haveto be that you do anything
different.
It could be that you're doingsomething better, but this one I
always think it's easy if weconsider an example.
So think about our pizzatakeout example that I've used
(11:50):
in a previous episode.
In your town there are probablyplenty of pizza joints and they
all make a living.
There's plenty of space in thatmarket.
You just have to identify whatthat unmet need is and go for it
.
So maybe your pizza takeoutservice let's put yourself in
the pizza takeout owner's shoesMaybe you're going to source all
(12:12):
of your toppings locally andthey're going to change
seasonally so that you'rereducing food miles and
supporting other local producersin your town.
Now that is a totally differentconcept to a big global chain
like a, let's just say, a pizzahut, for example.
So you just need to think abouthow you are going to stand out.
(12:34):
That's number four.
Number five.
I want you to now look at thoseoutputs from the four tasks
that I've just explained and Iwant you to summarize it by
filling in the blanks of thesentence, and it goes a little
something like this my productor service is, explain what it
(12:54):
is in the blank, and thenconsumers will choose my product
service, business over mycompetitors because blank.
Now give yourself permission totake the time to sit and work
through these tasks, and thenyou've completed item one of how
(13:14):
to get your marketing startedwhen you're just starting out in
business.
That wasn't so hard, was it?
You've got this on to the nextstage.
Thanks for being part of thehuddle today.
I hope you enjoyed the episodeand you got some value out of it
.
Now don't forget hit subscribe,because next time we're going
(13:35):
to delve into the second topicon where to start with your
marketing when launching a newbusiness, and that's by defining
your target market and yourideal customer.
This is a biggie of a topic andit's actually super, super
helpful to revisit, even ifyou've been in business a while.
And, as a quick reminder, visitthe episode description to get
(13:56):
access to my worksheet that'sgoing to help you complete the
five tasks that I've talkedabout today, or you can head
directly over to my website andgrab it there.
That's at marketingondemandcoslash startup one.
Thanks for listening and I willcatch you at the next episode
of the Small Business MarketingHuddle.
Now for the legal jargon.
(14:23):
This podcast is for informationand education purposes only.
We make no business performanceclaims or guarantees in the
information shared.
The podcast content is generalin nature and does not
constitute advice for yourunique business situation.
Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Huddle.
Our show is all about takingaction.
We equip you with the marketingknowledge and confidence you
need to make real progress.
So let's huddle up and listenin to the latest episode with
your host, Lily Richmond.
Lily Richmond (00:31):
Hey, this is Lily .
Thank you so much for joiningme in this episode today.
Now, if you're alreadysubscribed to the show, thank
you so much.
You definitely make this huddlean awesome place to learn about
all things marketing.
And if this is your first timehere, don't forget to hit the
follow or subscribe button inyour favourite podcast player,
(00:52):
because today, like in everyepisode, I'm going to cover a
marketing topic you've reallygot to learn if you want to
master your marketing.
And, as always, make sure youlisten until the very end,
because I'm going to give youthe inside track and an easy to
follow worksheet on how tocreate a compelling product or
service that people actuallywant to buy.
So let's get started Now.
(01:14):
Today's episode is a little bitdifferent because it's going to
kick off a series on where tostart when you're just starting
out, and this idea actually camefrom a listener who asked me
will you be doing an episodetargeted to those who are just
starting their marketing journey, when it's a brand new business
and they literally don't knowwhere to start?
(01:35):
And I thought, hey, that is anawesome series of episodes that
I could do, and particularly atthe start of the year, when
there might be a few of you outthere who are brimming with a
new business idea and you don'tknow where to start.
So you asked and I'm going todeliver.
And on that note, actually, ifyou do have a marketing topic
that you would find helpful forme to cover, definitely get in
(01:57):
touch.
You can find out how to do thatin the episode show notes, so
definitely check that out onceyou've finished listening.
Now I put a lot of thought intowhat marketing tasks are
absolutely critical when youwant to start strong with a new
business, and I wanted todistill this down so you can
(02:19):
focus your energy on the mostimportant things.
And I know from my ownexperience that starting a
business is really exciting, butit's pretty scary too and at
times it is really overwhelming.
You know you go from having thenugget of an idea to having to
work out your I don't know yourlegal structure, how you're
(02:41):
going to develop a product, whatroles you need to hire, opening
bank accounts the list justgoes on and on and on.
And I totally appreciate thatyou might be in a space where
you're doing this for the veryfirst time.
You've never had a businessbefore.
Going into business for thefirst time is, it is a full on
(03:02):
thing, and feeling a bit allover the place is totally,
totally natural, but togetherwe're going to make sure that,
when it comes to the marketingaspects of your new small
business, you know exactly whatyou need to do, and we're going
to filter out all of that stuffthat just doesn't matter at this
point so you can focus.
(03:23):
So there are going to be sevendifferent topics that I'm going
to cover over the next sevenepisodes, and today we're
kicking off with how to create acompelling offer that people
just cannot resist.
And why are we choosing thatfirst as a topic?
Well, I really think that youneed to be able to spell out
what it is your business bringsto the world.
(03:44):
And, second, you need to makesure that the world actually
needs and wants what it is thatyou're going to offer.
Otherwise, being brutal, you'reactually wasting your time and
money if you develop a businessaround a product or service
offering that people just aren'tinterested in buying.
So we need to make sure thatyou get that right and, to be
(04:05):
fair, this is one of thefoundation or bedrock pieces of
your marketing, whether you'vestarted a new business or
whether you've been in businessfor a while.
So, without further ado, let'sget into it.
So what does it mean to create acompelling offer, and why is
this an important first step foryou?
(04:26):
Well, I like to think about itthis way A compelling product or
service makes your idealcustomer go oh, I've got to have
that.
This is just what I've beenlooking for, right?
It solves a problem.
It meets your customer wherethey are and it says this is how
I'm going to make your lifebetter.
(04:46):
That's a compelling product orservice offering.
Now you might fire back at meand say that's all well and good
, but there is huge competitionout there in the space that I
want to operate, and there areplenty of people doing what I'm
about to start doing.
How on earth am I going tobreak through?
And this is the way you do it.
(05:07):
You be compelling in what youroffer is.
You've got to create that offerthat gives your ideal customer
a reason, a really good reason,to choose you over your
competitors.
And this is a key thing.
It's a key question that I askconsulting clients.
So what?
Why is your ideal customergoing to choose your business
(05:32):
over your competitors?
And you can probably detect Iget pretty passionate about this
particular topic because it'sreally simple but so often
overlooked.
So we are going to sort thatout today.
Now you don't have to beinventing something new with
your business right.
You don't have to be zany andout there.
You don't have to be inventingsomething.
You've just got to create aproduct or service with solid
(05:56):
reasons, you know and I meansolid, right Things that you can
prove and you can hang your haton on why someone would choose
you to help them solve theirproblem.
And this is why I'm startingwith your product or service
offering.
First, you've got to understandwhat you bring to the
marketplace.
Now I've got to caveat all ofthis that your first entry point
(06:17):
into your marketing might notstart here, with your product or
service offering.
You might not have come up withyour product or service idea
first.
You might have actuallyidentified a target market that
you want to go after and you'vereally got to come up with a
product or service that meetssomething that that market needs
.
It's totally cool to start withthe customer first, before the
(06:41):
product, but what I've tended tofind in my experience is that
most business owners have anidea of what it is they want to
offer first, and then the marketgets defined and refined after
that, but that might not be thecase for you.
So if you want to start withthe customer first, then you'll
want to listen to the nextepisode that comes out and that
(07:04):
might make that first step moreclear and easy for you, and then
you come on to product.
There's no single way to dothis.
You can listen to the episodesin whichever way you want to.
They all work perfectly finetogether and you'll probably
need to come back to them.
There's no one single way to doany of this marketing like, but
I'm just going to give youthose key tools so you can
(07:25):
actually work it out foryourself.
Now, getting a really clearpicture of your target market
and your ideal customer arereally important and they are
very much linked to creatingthat compelling product or
service offering.
So once you've defined yourtarget market and your ideal
customer, in the next episodeyou might need to come back to
this episode or the tasks fromthis episode to refine your
(07:49):
compelling offer, because onceyou really get into the nitty
gritty of who your audience is,you might need to refine your
product further.
But let's not focus on thattoday.
That's what we're going tocover in the next episode and
really what you offer and to whothey are intimately linked.
But I really need to break thisdown and make it simple and
digestible for you.
And another aspect ofdeveloping your product or
(08:11):
service for market is yourpricing, and pricing is a big
old, meaty topic that we're notgoing to cover today here either
.
That's going to be in a laterepisode in the series too.
So park pricing for now.
I always think you need to havea market with something
compelling to sell and then youcan work out how you need to
(08:32):
price it.
Now, what are some of thebenefits that you would get by
focusing some of your time andenergy now on developing a
compelling product or serviceoffering?
I think there's three keythings.
Firstly, your ideal customer isgoing to connect with it.
The second is, you are muchmore likely to win customers,
(08:54):
sell more products and getrepeat business.
And the third thing is it helpsyou be super clear and really
intentional about what it isthat you are really offering.
Yep, it helps you just focus onthose basics of what your
business is here to do.
Now, okay, you understand whyit's important to have a
compelling product or serviceoffering.
(09:15):
How on earth are you going tocome up with it?
If you listen in, after thebreak, I'm going to give you
five actionable steps that youcan take to make sure that
you're creating a product orservice or business idea that
people actually want to buy.
Okay, it is time to grab somespace your favorite refreshment
(09:41):
and take some action Now.
I've created a worksheet forthis exercise because, yet again
, like some of the others, youdon't want to have to write all
these tasks down while I'mtalking, and it can be a little
bit overwhelming and you needtime to think.
So pop into the episode shownotes, where I've dropped a link
to grab it.
Okay, first up, number one youneed to take the nugget of your
(10:04):
product or service idea and getyour head around what it does,
who would use it and why andjust freeform brainstorm this
right out as many points thatare coming to you as possible
what it does, who would use itand why.
Second, you need to look atwhat else is out there in your
(10:25):
marketplace where you want toserve.
Who else is doing this?
How are they doing it?
What do they do well?
What do they not do quite sowell?
Where are the gaps?
What are some opportunitiesthat are maybe being missed in
your marketplace?
This is your market research,and a really good way to do it,
I find, is put yourself in yourcustomers shoes.
(10:46):
Pretend that you are themshopping for what it is that you
are going to offer.
Okay, task number three I wantyou to have a good think about
the things that are important toyour consumer, the things that
they consider when they'rebuying your product or service.
What's on their list ofpriority features and benefits?
(11:07):
Now, don't worry that you don'tknow exactly, maybe, who that
ideal customer is.
Yet we're going to get to that.
Keep it broad for now.
Anyone who's in the market tobuy your product, what's
important to them?
Put yourself in their shoes,like you did in the market
research section and list outthe things what's important to
them when buying this product orservice.
The fourth task I want you todo is to have a think about how
(11:30):
you're going to stand outagainst that competition that
you have assessed in action.
Number two what is it that youcould do differently?
And it doesn't necessarily haveto be that you do anything
different.
It could be that you're doingsomething better, but this one I
always think it's easy if weconsider an example.
So think about our pizzatakeout example that I've used
(11:50):
in a previous episode.
In your town there are probablyplenty of pizza joints and they
all make a living.
There's plenty of space in thatmarket.
You just have to identify whatthat unmet need is and go for it
.
So maybe your pizza takeoutservice let's put yourself in
the pizza takeout owner's shoesMaybe you're going to source all
(12:12):
of your toppings locally andthey're going to change
seasonally so that you'rereducing food miles and
supporting other local producersin your town.
Now that is a totally differentconcept to a big global chain
like a, let's just say, a pizzahut, for example.
So you just need to think abouthow you are going to stand out.
(12:34):
That's number four.
Number five.
I want you to now look at thoseoutputs from the four tasks
that I've just explained and Iwant you to summarize it by
filling in the blanks of thesentence, and it goes a little
something like this my productor service is, explain what it
(12:54):
is in the blank, and thenconsumers will choose my product
service, business over mycompetitors because blank.
Now give yourself permission totake the time to sit and work
through these tasks, and thenyou've completed item one of how
(13:14):
to get your marketing startedwhen you're just starting out in
business.
That wasn't so hard, was it?
You've got this on to the nextstage.
Thanks for being part of thehuddle today.
I hope you enjoyed the episodeand you got some value out of it
.
Now don't forget hit subscribe,because next time we're going
(13:35):
to delve into the second topicon where to start with your
marketing when launching a newbusiness, and that's by defining
your target market and yourideal customer.
This is a biggie of a topic andit's actually super, super
helpful to revisit, even ifyou've been in business a while.
And, as a quick reminder, visitthe episode description to get
(13:56):
access to my worksheet that'sgoing to help you complete the
five tasks that I've talkedabout today, or you can head
directly over to my website andgrab it there.
That's at marketingondemandcoslash startup one.
Thanks for listening and I willcatch you at the next episode
of the Small Business MarketingHuddle.
Now for the legal jargon.
(14:23):
This podcast is for informationand education purposes only.
We make no business performanceclaims or guarantees in the
information shared.
The podcast content is generalin nature and does not
constitute advice for yourunique business situation.
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Monster: BTK
'Monster: BTK', the newest installment in the 'Monster' franchise, reveals the true story of the Wichita, Kansas serial killer who murdered at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Known by the moniker, BTK – Bind Torture Kill, his notoriety was bolstered by the taunting letters he sent to police, and the chilling phone calls he made to media outlets. BTK's identity was finally revealed in 2005 to the shock of his family, his community, and the world. He was the serial killer next door. From Tenderfoot TV & iHeartPodcasts, this is 'Monster: BTK'.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.